A terrible knot of unease, an unwellness, a disease of the spirit. Just some of the feelings The Last Duel pops into your heart. This medieval tale is centred around male pride, just like the society it depicts. The story goes full Rashomon to skewer this organisational feature, while spotlighting the convenience of selective memory, and its pernicious role in everyday hypocrisy.
This true-life historical story unfolds in chapters that draw you toward a greater truth. It’s refreshing to see…
“Any corrupt traffic cop can afford a good car after 5 years on the job.”
Still images guide us into a Russian coastal village. It is morning, but the shroud of darkness remains. We will meet Lilya and Nikolai, a local couple trying to retain their house in the face of threats from a Baron Harkonnen-like Mayor (who, incidentally, refers to them as insects).
Ah, but Nikolai has Dmitriy, an old army buddy now doing a spot of lawyering in…
So you’ve got this fuck-off big building you live in that’s like a house but it’s better than that because it has loads of rooms and space and the rooms give the illusion of neighbourliness even though (and this is the great thing) there’s nobody else living there except you and that’s enough because the family unit is fine on its own and all your material needs are fully met by stocked kitchens and games rooms; except some shitbag must…
Where do you find meaning in life? Walter and the Dude choose bowling, and so does Donny. Together, they are emotionally and spiritually invested in this silly, special pastime; a lanefull of losers rolling together for the win.
And a good job they are, because life comes at these chaps pretty fast, providing a surfeit of ridiculous wonky-noir shenanigans that could scatter the sturdiest of pins.
There's simply TMI to process, a lotta ins and outs, a strange amalgam of…
